Positioning the History of Science

ISBN-13: 9781402054198 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 212 str.

J]rgen Renn; Kostas Gavroglu; Jurgen Renn

Opis

The present volume, compiled in honor of an outstanding historian of science, physicist and exceptional human being, Sam Schweber, is unique in assembling a broad spectrum of positions on the history of science by some of its leading representatives. Readers will find it illuminating to learn how prominent authors judge the current status and the future perspectives of their field. Students will find this volume helpful as a guide in a fragmented field that continues to be dominated by idiosyncratic expertise and that still lacks a methodical canon. The essays were written in response to our invitation to explicate the views of the authors concerning the state of the history of science today and the issues we felt are related to its future. Although not all of the scholars whom we asked to write have contributed an essay, this volume can nevertheless be considered as a rather comprehensive survey of the present state of the history of science. All of the papers collected here reflect in one way or another the strong influence Sam Schweber has exerted during the past decades in his gentle way, on the history of science as well as on the lives of many of its protagonists worldwide. All who have had the opportunity of encountering him have benefited from his advice, benevolence, and friendship. Sam Schweber's intellectual taste, his passion for knowledge, and his erudition are all encompassing. It, therefore, seemed fitting to honor him with a collection of essays of comparable breadth; nothing less would suffice.

Spis treści

Introduction: Positioning the History of Science, Kostas Gavroglu and Jürgen Renn Big History?, Babak Ashrafi Suggestions for the Study of Science, Stephen G. Brush Will Einstein Still be the Super-Hero of Physics History in 2050?, Tian Yu Cao For a History of Knowledge, Olivier Darrigol Working in Parallel, Working Together, Lorraine Daston Challenges in Writing of Twentieth Century East Asian Physicists, Dong-Won Kim Why Should Scientists Become Historians?, Raphael Falk and Ruma O. Falk From the Social to the Moral to the Spiritual: The Postmodern Exaltation of the History of Science, Paul Forman Between Science and History, Evelyn Fox Keller The Search for Autonomy in History of Science, Yves Gingras Without Parallels?: Averting a Schweberian Dystopia, Michael D. Gordin The Intellectual Strengths of Pluralism and Diversity, Loren Graham On Connoisseurship, John Heilbron Concerning Energy, Steve Joshua Heims Reflections on a Discipline, Erwin N. Hiebert The Woman in Einstein’s Shadow, Gerald Holton The Mutual Embrace: Institutions and Epistemology, David Kaiser History, Science, and History of Science, , Helge Kragh Parallel Lives and the History of Science, Mary Jo Nye Discarding Dichotomies, Creating Community: Sam Schweber and Darwin Studies Diane B. Paul and John Beatty Public participation and Industrial Technoscience Today: The difficult question of accountability,Dominique Pestre The Character of Truth Joan Richards SCweber, Physicist, Historian and Moral Example, José Manuel Sánchez Ron What's new in Science?, Terry Shinn On the Road, SKÚLI SIGURDSSON Plutarchian versus Socratic Scientific Biography, Thomas Söderqvist Problems not Disciplines, John Stachel Physicist-Historians, Roger H. Stuewer Letting the Scientists Back In, Stephen J. Weininger Science as History, M. Norton Wise POSTSCRIPT, Sam Schweber

O autorze

Professor Jürgen Renn is director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His research focuses primarily on the emergence of mechanics in antiquity, the interaction between practical and theoretical knowledge since the Renaissance, the transition from classical to modern physics, the development of the theory of relativity, and the application of new media to the history of science. Professor Renn was coordinator of the exhibition 'Albert Einstein - Chief Engineer of the Universe' 2005 in Berlin.